There is no consensus “Fighter of the Year” from 2025.
A year ago, pretty much everyone agreed that Ilia Topuria was THAT GUY after smoking both Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway in perhaps the best consecutive pair of wins in UFC history. Comparatively, there’s a lot more debate this time around. Merab Dvalishvili is probably the most common pick, yet there’s an obvious problem here: he just lost his title a few weeks ago!
Dvalishvili was on track for a truly unprecedented 2025 when he pursued
his fourth title defense of the year opposite Petr Yan, a man he dominated for five rounds in their first collision. Unfortunately for “The Machine,” Yan flipped the script with a punishing performance, really beating Dvalishvili up for the bulk of 25 minutes. He left Dvalishvili bloodied and battered at UFC 323 — there was no doubt who was the better man.
For that win and storyline, former UFC double champion Henry Cejudo believes Yan is the “Fighter of the Year.”
“Call me crazy, and I know a lot of people have been giving it to Merab because he fought four times, but the reality is, you’re only as good as your last fight,” Cejudo explained on his podcast (via Harry Kettle). “I’ve got to give it to Petr Yan. Why? Because the story is there. What he was able to do, who he fought to get to the title, and then avenge the loss when he got 50-45’d against Merab the first time.
“To come back and actually beat him, to me, was impressive. … It is quality vs. quantity, and just the simple fact that he was able to beat Merab after being 50-45’d, to me, that’s grit. That’s Fighter of the Year. That’s someone who didn’t give up on his dream and still came back five years after he became champion.”
Yan’s performance against Dvalishvili was definitely one of the best of the year outright, and the history between them only made it more impressive. However, it’s also his only title win, as his only other appearance in 2025 was a 29-28 decision victory over Marcus McGhee. That’s a good win, but any “Fighter of the Year” argument for Yan is relying almost entirely on the Dvalishvili performance, while other champions won multiple title bouts.
Who is your fighter of the year, Maniacs?
